April 24, 2012

Leek Gratin

After picking up the kids from school, a handful of parents loiter around in front of the school, talking about our day and other hot topics as our children play together.

"What ya making for supper?"

"I'm making a leek gratin side dish!"

*crickets chirping*

At first I thought maybe they didn't hear me. There were no usual oooh's and ahhh's, no comments on the dish sounding tasty or the typical "hey, we're coming to your house for supper" type of joke. Just some awkward silence and then the eyes averting my gaze soon clued me in.

"If you like that sort of thing."

I can understand, leeks are part of the onion and garlic family, and people don't boast about how much they love onions and garlic. Onion gratin just doesn't sound right I suppose but I always looked at leeks a bit differently. Maybe I took my love of vegetables too far? Would Mikey like it? Maybe not but I'm not Mikey and I really liked it.

The leeks were soft in their creamy surrounding and the crunchy bread topping was a great juxtaposition in texture. I didn't add enough salt and pepper to the leek mixture as I was afraid the parmesan cheese would add enough of a salty kick but I know now to add some more for next time. Yes, there will be a next time.

Hubby liked it enough and when he took leftovers to work the next day for lunch, folks were asking what he was eating because it smelled so good.

4 comments:

Sounds very tasty, to bad more people don't know the deliciousness of leeks. Sorrentino's does have the garlic festival and it seems to be very polarizing among people, people that love garlic and don't care if they stink afterwards and people who wont admit they like garlic. Probably the same kind of thing goes for leeks although I think a lot of people don't know what to do with them as well.

Trevor: I haven't been to garlic festival yet but I WOULD LOVE TO! I'd happily stink to they high heavens for it :) You are correct about people not knowing what to do with them. I'm so used to my dad pulling leeks out of the garden every year, I guess they are second nature to me. :)